The Human Capacity for Boredom & Its Implications on Happiness

We humans have this great evolutionary trait that allows us to quickly adapt and become accustomed to new environments and scenarios. For prehistoric man, I’m sure this helped a lot. For instance a thunderstorm would only terrifying the first time it was experienced.

But for modern man, this concept means one thing: we get bored easily. Or maybe a better way to say it is we get used to things very quickly. Marriages turn ugly, lottery winners commit suicide, and that “exciting promotion” just doesn’t do it for you anymore.

Many people say “I will be happy when _______ happens and when I have _______.” Well as you should know from past experiences, you’re going to get bored of _______ soon after you have attained it. We’re constantly wanting something different, especially when it comes to the concrete.

The Million Dollar Question

If this boredom effect happens with everything, then how could you ever be happy unless you are happy right now?

**This is probably the shortest post I’ll ever write but I hope we can get some good, long discussions going on in the comments. Have an awesome day.

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Hey, I'm the creator of HighExistence. I love inspiring others to follow their bliss, which in turn fulfills my own. I live for traveling, late-night conversations and moments of intense clarity or intoxication. I also run a company that sells crazy shirts and rave clothing :)

Interesting Comments… but has anyone given any thought to the peculiar situation of humans pursuing happiness? Why would any person (not mammal) want to do or achieve this? If I were to say “My ambition is to achieve Sadness in life.” , I guarantee you I’ll get there before any of you can sneeze! When my little girl looked at a dying bird and cried tears; … why didn’t she laugh instead? Even from a young age, our very existence seems to cry out for life, health, wealth, sanity etc. We are even taught through religious instruction that our human nature leans naturally toward evil or some existence of the non-good in the universe. Just looking at the daily news I assume that this is not too far fetched at all. Thanks Guys Lance M. South Africa

Sorry I am a bit confused by your comment. Are you asking why any person would want to achieve happiness? Of course our world is chalk-full of things pulling us towards unhappiness, but is that any reason to give up the pursuit? I don’t think so. If happiness came easy, it wouldn’t be as great or desirable anyways.

Yes Jordan, that is correct. I am asking, what has created the basic need for humans to pursue happiness, or to feel the need to even be content in this Life? Why did evolution not cater for this one basic need in our genetic composition… must it now be hunted down till we possess it? And when we finally attain this happiness that kills the boredom… what then? What’s next? Who’s universe defines what ‘happy’ is? Will everyone bring to the table their understanding of the ‘English’ 5-letter word? Letters are mere strokes in the sand or markings on a stone wall. The sobering fact is that, with all our intelligence we are confined to a mere 10 digits and 26 letters that we believe somehow make us clever. Forgive this little philosophical trail, but think on this: A tree is larger than me, yet it does not speak English, yet I can choose to speak English to the tree. It does not talk back. When I say ” I will cut you down” It does not run away. Yet the tree is still greater than me. ?? Enough of this kind of thing can make anyone’s head spin, but the point is vital. What is the purpose to all things in this Life? And if I were to know everything, including nothing, then I still would not know anything! It’s round about here when most people will stop reading this post… Peace

I agree with this. I just moved 1800 miles away from all of my friends and family and I thought this would make a huge difference in my life and now here I am finding myself bored in my new home. Stay entertained with the simple things in life.

Hey jordan, found your website today and love it! I’ve been reading all I can for today, but just wanted to comment on this. I once read a book by famous psychologist Richard Wiseman. The book is titled 59 seconds, and has tips on improving you life that work in less than a minute, I love it because it doesn’t have the same self-help techniques that EVERY other website and book has, it has different ones that are very practical. I highly recommend it. But anyways, one of the techniques discussed was something like “Spend your money on experiences, not items”. I feel that this technique has a great connection with your post. Because it is explained that we grow tired of items very easily (New phone, new laptop, etc.), however spending money on experiences is something that will [almost] always make us happy, because it is temporary and because it is new. It will also keep us from being bored! I thought that tied in really well hear, have a great day! :)

Whenever I expressed boredom, my mom use to say to me, “intelligent people don’t get bored.” While I found this rather blunt and insulting at the time when I was little (its still blunt though)… I began thinking about it later in life and made my own adaptation as “An intelligent person is never bored for long.” That being said, many things still influence happiness and our daily life. If anyone has read Gilbert’s book “Stumbling on Happiness,” you’ll see that the human if extremely susceptible to presentism, which is the fact that the mind often imagines your future emotions based on your present happiness. So if your sad or bored now, your very likely to see any future task as being bored or situation as hopeless and sad as well. On a similar note, the Dalai Lama states that we can control and suppress our negative emotions. This is especially important in this case, because if you do not “get over it” so to speak, you’ll be stuck in a constant state of negativity. The amount of self-control the Dalai Lama is part of the “intelligence” that every person should have when overcoming boredom or negativity with enough training and perseverance(unless they have a clinical problem in which case its a different story all together). Basically everyone under normal circumstances are capable of this. In addition to that, adaptation places the other way as well. A person can also adapt to the boredom derived from adaptation, thereby finding something interesting or happy to replace the “boredom” experienced by the mind. Anyway, just some thoughts!

We’re all different, so every answer to the million dollar question will be different. I wouldn’t expect one answer or another to sufficiently sum it all up. For me, I see just doing nothing as beneficial when I get so involved in this or that flurry of activity and/or I get so caught up in daily busy-ness that I feel like I have no time to just “be”; so at times, a day or two of doing nothing is much needed. I also see the inverse – after a day or two of doing nothing, the feeling emerges that I need “be” productive. Am I bored with doing too much when I crave doing nothing? Am I bored with doing nothing when I crave doing something productive? Will doing nothing or being busy make me happy? The answer to all three questions – for me – is yes and no. Depending on my sense of fulfillment and peace of mind I might be happy or unhappy whether I am engaged or disengaged. I appreciate what Jane says about “predominant mood state”and I think her post addresses the question in a way that works best – for me – at least for the “time being”. I am least bored and most happy when I intentionally choose to “be” and most bored and least happy when I am least able, for whatever reason, to make that choice. I try to read Man’s Search for Meaning, by Victor Frankl, at least once every year – and I think he would say that the choice to “be” happy is always mine to make, regardless of circumstances.

So, i have no opinion as of current and me writing a comment is how i shall force my brain to think it out. Happiness is temporary and once you are faced with your daily hardships, that happiness fades away slowly with each. But, there are things that make those hardships endurable and thus maintain your satisfaction with life and happiness. For some it is religion and the promise of an afterlife, for some love and for me it’s.. well, i don’t know what it is that makes life endurable for me since i turn to any of the things at any given time and they all help me get a smile back on my face so i’m guessing it’s a mixture of all. to the person above who said live in the moment, what if the moment is miserable? and the next? and the one after it too? I believe a sense of hope, no matter how false, keeps your spirits up. All i can say is savor experiences and relations with your fellow humans, if being alone makes you happy then so be it. A new PS3 or iPod certainly won’t bring you happiness, and actually it will distract you from pursuing real happiness. Material things are a quick fix for happiness, and unless you savor them and appreciate them then they will bore you too. But thats only what i think and happiness is different to all sorts of different people. One thing im certain of is that Ignorance is Bliss.

…Just finished watching “The Pursuit of Happiness” (Will Smith), and couldn’t help being awed at the phenomenal part in the script: Will Smith thinks out loud… “It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. No matter what. How did he know that?”

We humans are cyclical beings. We live and die, wake up and go to sleep, eat and take a shit, say hello and goodbye, etc. We constantly look for patterns and think in terms of “starts and finishes.” So, when confronted with the concept that our life has begun, and therefore must end, a search for meaning must ensue.

But meaning is completely subjective. How can you tell me what blue looks like to you? We merely have come to a consensus that it looks something like the header and footer of this website. Is my blue the same as your blue?

If we think in terms of cycles, then something becomes boring to us once we personally decide that is no longer has meaning to us.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (great psychologist, thinker, and the most copy pasted name on the internet) has written books about the concept of Flow, which is the complete involvement and enjoyment of a task. It differs from pleasure in that it provides us with lasting appeal, whereas pleasure is short lived. In flow, there are three major components:

1. Rules: They must be present for Flow to be achieved

2. A balance between Challenge and Skill: Too hard and people wont even try, too easy and they will give up.

3. Goals and feedback: We have to know that we are accomplishing something in order to feel enough motivation to continue with that task. And the only way we will know we are accomplishing something is if we get feedback when we do it.

Life is meant to Flow. Find a purpose that allows for as much intellectual expansion and personal growth as you desire, set goals, receive feedback, and follow the rules of that pursuit (in the case of life: Don’t die and be happy)

“If this boredom effect happens with everything, then how could you ever be happy unless you are happy right now?”

Hi Jordan, love your site. I have a question regarding your question. Are you saying that once we attain happiness that we will be bored with that happiness once we attain it? Therefore if we are happy now, then we have no hope of sustaining that happiness because we will eventually become bored with that happiness?

Maybe boredom gives us the mental space we need to dwell in our happiness for a while. Maybe we need boredom so that we don’t have anything else to think about except happiness.

Or maybe boredom is the “reset” button in our minds that helps us achieve the next desire in our life.

I remember Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth on this one saying that it’s one of the most common unconscious thoughts that feed the feeling of discontent or background resentment.

“There is something that needs to happen in my life before I can be at peace (happy, fulfilled, etc.). And I resent that it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe my resentment will finally make it happen.” … “All of the above are assumptions, unexamined thoughts that are confused with reality. They are stories the ego creates to convince you that you cannot be at peace now or cannot be fully yourself now. Being at peace and being who you are, that is, being yourself, are one. The ego says: Maybe at some point in the future, I can be at peace — if this, that, or the other happens, or I obtain this or become that. Or it says: I can never be at at peace because of something that happened in the past. Listen to people’s stories and they could all be entitled “Why I Cannot Be at Peace Now.” The ego doesn’t know that your only opportunity for being at peace is now. Or maybe it does know, and it is afraid that you may find this out. Peace, after all, is the end of the ego.”

Is my body looking for happiness, or is it my thoughts? It would be hard to find something I already have. If I already have it the constant search and temporary finding outside my self would be like a dog chasing its tail. So I assume the real question is are you done chasing your tail.

Very good discussions – (I am a newbie, by the way) I have finally found the right forum to have a meaningful discussion on topics that are closed to my heart.

I’m guilty as sin – tend to think that ‘happiness’ is not within my grasp so spend most of my life chasing this elusive ‘state of being’. However, now and again, I encounter something that can be so simple and natural in the daily life, which makes me realise that however unfortunate I feel about my situation at the time, there are always other people out there who are more unfortunate than me and who have no means to end their suffering. I have to keep reminding myself to count my blessings!

One rule I follow in life is just do it no matter how much you don’t want to hang out or go to dinner with some one or go on a camping trip or what ever. Odds are youll have a great time. Worst case scenario you youre still board an if things go horribly wrong you have an interesting story. So just go for it

Some people don’t want to be happy, and i think that’s ok. They want meaningful lives, and meaningful lives are not always the same as happy lives. Some might say I’m treading a fine line… but let’s be realistic. Serving a life purpose does not always equate with living happily.

That’s it ! You said it. It’s like thinking or talking or desires, there’s no end to it, it’s infinite. But when you stop thinking, by focusing on something else then you’re thought, like your breath, you become complete, fulfill of life, you access to what is here and now, to the world, to it’s splendor of magnificent beauty and richness.

maybe its that humans need to not set the standard of happiness so high. humans have adapted into more self-serving beings and have forgotten that we are only meant to live a comfortable life and nothing more. the more we think material things are going to satisfy us, the more we become bored with it. what needs to be learned is to take only what you need. :) hope i’m some what right

I once remember reading a post that explained the opposite of happiness is actually boredom, not sadness. It really does strike a chord though. To think during this in-action/procrastination period you spend doing, essentially, nothing you are only delving deeper into a blank feeling. The feeling that can only be attained when you are being ‘active’ in a sense of wasting time rather than being productive and using time. Your mind goes blank and you lose all your energy, much like when people just crash in-front of the television it seems that ‘great evolutionary trait’ seems to ring true in the negative way in which we have evolved from crashing in-front of the t.v. to crashing in-front of your computers. I try and remind myself of the consequences of when I am lost on stumbleupon/facebook/dailybooth/twitter etc… I know that the procrastination wont make me happy/healthy/interesting so I need to stop. One of the methods was the behaviourlist tech. of an elastic band around your wrist and each time you caught yourself procrastinating when you didn’t mean too I just snap it around my wrist, get up and do something else. Its simple and easy and doesn’t require a 10 step method of beating procrastination or a massive challenge before you start….just an elastic band and a red wrist. Don’t get me wrong though, I do believe that boredom/procrastinating/daydreaming/thinking about nothing are great in small doses to drift off from the seriousness and stressful things that happen in everyday life. Sure some people would substitute it for meditation as their way of getting away. But if you get lost in it then you really are just achieving nothing and like I said wasting your time. I guess that shows to me I am happy when I am achieving things or at least just doing something as I see fun….oh wait thats everyone else too. =D -Liam

I was once asked the following: “Lets say I have machine behind this door, which, provided I hook you up to it, you will spend the next thirty years wherever you want to be, always happy. After thirty years, you will wake up, here, thirty years later. Would you do it?” Now, the others in the group I was in started saying things about how much life would suck if you missed thirty years of it, coming out a middle aged man who nobody knows. A few people said that they would take it, and, after thirty years, enter again. I said that I would not take the offer, because if you are always happy, that becomes your norm. Happiness loses its touch. You’d become bored. When you come out, less happy then your new norm, you’d likely be depressed. Temporary happiness loses its value; the long term things that will always make you smile, however, are what really matters. Guys, I don’t care what happens, remember to smile. Its fun. Sorry I haven’t commented in a while, I’ve been busy, and the universe kind of just punched me in the face.

I do not personally believe in boredom. It is 2010, I do not think anyone has any reason to be bored. If we constantly want something different, then are we really bored? I think people choose to be bored pick up a book, go see a movie or a friend, take a nap. (lol) As far as happiness, you have a choice in that too that saying “Lemons and Lemonade” Just smile and you will feel a little better if you are not happy or don’t so when…begin to make it happen or at least try because then you can say you did…at least try. P.S. this is site is painfully enjoyable and beyond insightful…thanks! :)

I totally agree about boredom. This age of technology and abundance has made many people incredibly lazy, and lazy people get “bored”. Boredom is only achieved when one decides they can no longer think of anything productive or fun to do. I attribute this to the lack of proper nutrition, education, and exercise in this country, along with our disturbing addiction to pharmaceuticals. Exercise is a major factor – if you are bored go work out! Soon you will feel more energetic, the mind works better, and ideas will come to you more readily. Seems that healthy, vibrant people are never bored. There is another article on this site ( which is fantastic by the way! ..just Stumbled on it! ) which deals with the power of the mind..http://www.highexistence.com/fastest-way-to-change-something-about-yourself/ This deals with the fact that we all create exactly the life we live. The mind is incredibly powerful, and all we have to do is envision the life we want, believe that is the life we live, and the power of attraction will make it so.

Will – I have to disagree that it is the”lazy” people who are bored, and that healthy, vital people are never bored. Personally, I struggle constantly with chronic boredom, and I have struggled with it my whole life – later in life, I found out that it can be connected with a diagnosis of ADD.

Anyway, I consider myself a successful, healthy, fun person. I am 30 years old, happily married, and have a career that I love, along with plenty of friends and family. However, I dread boredom on a daily basis, and will do almost anything to avoid it. I exercise. I am always immersing myself in a new hobby or topic or cause. I do volunteer work. As a lawyer, I do different things every day that never fail to challenge me. Yet after I go on that run, or try that case, or watch my fave Bravo TV show, there it is – the boredom. It is miserable for me, yet it is part of me, and I do what I can to deal with it.

This is just a theory, but I bet several great inventions throughout history came about because someone was avoiding boredom and decided to try something new. People who are always doing one productive task after another until all their work is done don’t always have time to think about ways to make things better. Also, I bet most “adrenaline junkies” who engage in extreme sports are in the same boat that I’m in. It’s not laziness that begets boredom. In fact, those of us who *hate* boredom will do just about anything to avoid it.

I agree that staying in the moment is key. It’s so hard for me to do, but I try to get better at it every day.

I agree with you Acratley. After doing everything I can to avoid boredom I end up bored. I can stay entertained for hours being productive, watching a show, going out, but it seems like when I’m done doing those things I end up bored. When I’m bored I try a lot of new things, some of these things are VERY stupid but even negative consequences were worth the relief from boredom.

I find that smokin some MJ takes the edge off from boredom temporarily :) Also it makes it so I don’t have the crazy mentality of doing ANYTHING to not be bored.

I am late finding this post but always have this issue in the back of my mind as well. Ryan I would be curious to know if you ever found a solution as I have moved several times and had a wide variety of jobs before finding myself once again bored and moving on. I wonder if I will ever feel settled or always suffer from boredom?

Jordan, I’m not sure I can agree that everything works out. I might be splitting hairs here, but it seems to me that there are definitely times when things don’t work out at all. I suppose, if you’re saying that even when things don’t work out like we thought they would or wanted them to, they still “work out” somehow – but what does that even mean? If I fail at everything I try to do, did things work out? If I decide to pursue something, whether that be finding happiness somehow by moving to Guatemala, or maybe a more interesting job that doesn’t quickly get boring, or whatever – regardless of the outcome, I live on to strive another day… to pursue whatever I choose, but does that mean everything works out? It’s just that I often hear people say things like that – everything works out – and it just sounds like placating, oversimplified gibberish to me. I don’t mean to come across as cynical, or rude – because my intent is actually quite the opposite – but I cringe a little bit when I people use that kind of language to “help” someone who’s going through some challenging experience in their life. Does it help to tell someone that everything works out when life doesn’t always work out “well”. I believe my attitude is my responsibility, and I have to tend my garden and manage/control/determine my attitude so that I’m not overcome by something that’s truly problematic to my experience of “happiness”, which could include anything from a minor annoyance to even the most devastating kinds of adversity. I also think that being mindful of how I “think” about things has a great deal to do with the actual outcomes I experience as my life unfolds. I’ll even say that I believe our thinking orients us to something that is mysteriously “other”, a spiritual orientation that defies description – and we can learn to live in agreement with that in a way that helps us along the way. I think Paulo Coelho wrote, “If you follow a path of heart, the universe will conspire to assist you.” And Jesus said, “Store your treasures in heaven, for where you treasures are there your heart will be also.” Having said all that, I wonder – what does it mean to say that “everything works out”?

Josh, i think is true that things always work out. So simple, things were/are/will be, the way they should, not at the way we would like them to be.

If we fail an examination, if we find out that we have a terminal illness, if we are rejected by someone we love etc. We could say that things aren’t working out, but they would actually be working out; because maybe we needed to be rejected in order to find someone better. You name it, a better partner a better job, maybe we’ve got the disease because we haven’t been very careful with our body, maybe we needed to learn that it was necessary to study even more in order to approve out examination…

In my opinion: understanding, learning and recognizing that thing actually always ”work out” takes responsability and something i personally consider the ”magic key” for everything, acceptance. Why? Well, resposability to be honest and recognize that if things didn’t work out, it is because we didn’t do everything we supposed to, or we did but not at the way we had to, or not at the right time, not with enough passion, love, feeling. Consequence is, things ”didn’t/ don’t work out” . So, they are at the way they supposed to be, and we get to experience what we had to in order to become a better person, let’s say a grown up ‘man’. Acceptance to take it them just like that, the way they are, make the best of it and move on, next. Things get to work out at the way we would like them to, when we are ready for it, ready with everything it takes and then we can notice, agree and even say it ” Everything is working out” but meanwhile we aren’t getting the results we would like to have in life, speaking in general terms we’ll remain saying things aren’t working out!

I’m coming across this 2 years and 9 months after it was posted. Seems weird I don’t know how I stumbled across this. Anyways I was reading and wondered if I could answer your question. For this phrase to work you have to be able to see the good in everything. To be able to see what you gain when you are dealt the cards you didn’t want or expect. So instead of seeing it as spurts of happiness you should see it as continuous happiness with spurts of a negative emotion. But that will instantly be flipped when you are able to find the lesson or positive outcome in that situation. I hope I was able to explain that well. Peace. Love. Good Vibes.

It is true that research has found evidence that the baseline for affect (one’s long-lasting and predominate mood state) will adapt and shift to major changes in one’s life. Research has found that individuals left as paraplegics following an accident were only mildly less happy than those who had just won a very large lottery prize, and this is exactly that return to baseline of affect. Additionally, genetics, temperament, and development are supported as primary components in our affective state- this is to say that some people are simply naturally happier than others. While these mechanisms suggest little control over our level of happiness, there is also an enormous literature base demonstrating innumerable methods of increasing positive affect and general happiness. Simple methods such as keeping a gratitude journal every night for a two weeks has been shown to increase life satisfaction and happiness; this same effect works with keeping count of kind acts over a week. Research has also found that expressing one’s emotions, reminiscing about positive memories, sharing positive events with family and friends, and savoring the moment when experiencing something positive all also lead to increased happiness and life satisfaction. Finally, research has evidence that there is an “upward-spiral” to happiness- the experience of positive emotions allows one to gain many helpful resources that then make experiencing positive emotion in the future more likely! The take home message is you can be happy- or happier- in the future. To do this you must pay attention to your emotions and to take the time to savor, enjoy, and share your positive experiences because this will help to live a healthier, happier, and longer life (according to science, at least).

Great comment, Jane. I refrained from using any scentific references in this article because I thought everyone would just know it was true, but I your insight was very enlightening. Thanks for the input :)

I dont know how to post a comment so i replied to a comment. I believe that if you have the right mind set you can never be bored. with computers and so many things you can do and look up. Whenever your “bored” go learn something new or research a topic up on the internet this will widen your knowledge and get you good at something because people especially teenagers get bored a lot like me.

Or, even better, go out and do something. In nature. You know, that thing we live in but rarely take the time to appreciate. Yes, you can discover a lot from the internet, but why not go to the library and actually read books. Real books. Or walk your dog, learn to surf or ride a horse, take the day to see how far you could walk and see where you end up.

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” — Chris McCandless

just a quote that i think is relative to this discussion. says pretty much all i have to say about that.

I just wanted to say that this website is amazing. I’ve had a weird, slightly empty year, and I’ve been pretty much miserable and just waiting for things to change. I stumbled upon your website the same day that I decided that things have to change- fate huh? Your tips are amazing, and your site will definitely help me be truly happy. Thank you.

Seeing as human beings become bored so easily, maybe the key to happiness is to always seek out new things. That’s why people with dynamic career paths seem to be happier (some of the time) – they’re always facing new things, even if they’re subtle, and new hurdles. In short, you can still keep on doing whatever you want to do, just keep on doing new things within that domain. If you’re a cook, learn some new dishes to cook. You’ll remain engaged and happy that way.

That said, it always seems like some people can tolerate mundaneness and still have a good time for far longer than others. Each to his own I guess?

The key to happiness is exactly this: to stay here, in this moment: right now. And now. And so on… This is the key to life. Honestly. Nothing is harder to do though. To be connected to your body, your emotions and your thoughts, without spinning off into some involuntary action is a momentary miracle. This is the true goal of all meditation, prayer, cognitive behavior therapy, chants, movements. This is because now is where and when we can be. It is the door to our soul. The past and future are full of fantasy, things that aren’t real at all. Nothing is more real than the feeling of my feet on the ground, the lingering scent of the trees, the dimming sunlight, the warmth of the laptop on my lap, the tinny sound of “London Calling” falling out of same laptop, my full stomach, the ache of loneliness as I await my family’s return from a movie, the rims of my glasses framing everything…the tension of my thoughts becoming words. Observing myself requires letting go of everything else, if only for a moment or two. It is there that I can find my true self: all forgiving and open.

^Yes. Being still at school it’s hard focus solely on the present but over summer thats all I did. Me and a friend lived by spontaneity. We slept wherever we could find the most beautiful sunset, we did whatever we felt like doing on a whim, accepting every opportunity that presented itself, finding inspiring places and just sitting/thinking/talking/listening. It was the happiest I can remember being in a very long time. I can’t wait to finish school and spend a good few years living for the moment. I believe thats the key to happiness and I know sometimes it is hard due to the harsh commitments of the modern society but you still have to try. Take notice of any moment, long or short, where your mind is free of thought and make it a happy moment. Just get it as much as possible and you will be just that much closer to leading an happy, boredom free life.

Yeah! You should counter this blog entry by simply creating a blog tending towards HOW people specifically begin to feel more happy and how fast it might happen.. What leads up to these happy feelings? How quickly do these steps arise towards personal happiness, pleasant feelings, blissfulness, or mainly content people with everything around them? Money? Relationships? Food? The possibilities are endless.. It could possibly be a hard one to figure given that people are different and some down right fucked…. but simple Psychology could be the answer. So HIT THAT SHIT UP I would love to read it.

Short and sweet article Dalai Lama says.. “the meaning of life is to become happy”. I think this is quite an universal truth. It all comes down to that. I will get happy when I chose to be. But it seems very difficult to come to that realization. I shan’t blame anyone but myself, and it’s all in the mind, but we beautiful humans are very supseptible to outside manipulation.. and we change eachother very much. I don’t think it’s possible to get happy before every human is happy, how that’s supposed to work is a mystery. But we need to do it together. Not alone.

“the meaning of life is to become happy” not the (meaning of life is to be happy) rather doing things that make us happy if your very happy for a long time, you become used to that and so you need to do some thing else to make you happy. sort of like the lottery winner he wins the lottery now he needs to do other things instead of making money to make him happy.

Oh man I beg to differ. Your happiness is solely dependent on yourself and happiness can be achieved without universal happiness. If you are correct and the Dalai Lama is also correct, then why don’t we all just kill ourselves now? Not everyone will ever be happy so hypothetically I would never be happy, so I would never reach the goal of life. How depressing…

I would like to bring you a secret from the matrix. You are right Jordan. You are likely to never reach happiness. This is only because the concept of happiness implies that you have reached a level of -permanent- happiness. This is unachievable unless you lower your standards and a redefine what happiness is to you. But you do have another option. Starting right now, you can seek out ‘moments of joy’. Like all things, they are fleeting. But that doesn’t mean that they didn’t happen. 01110101010100110110101010100100101011001010101010010010110110101010100101010100100101010010101010100101001010010100101001001010010100101010101001011010101011011101010001010110